John Hopkins Hospital is a member of the group of companies under the umbrella of Hopkins Health Systems, which is a highly developed organizational operations, principally designed to deliver maximum health care to the State of Maryland, other states, as well as the international community. A critical review of the John Hopkins Hospital inclusive of several aspects of its organizational structure will reveal all the pertinent reasons why it has been so successful as a medical institution.

CENTRALIZATION VS DECENTRALIZATION

The parent company has conscientiously designed and built the organization to function as a decentralized entity, rather than maintaining the previously traditional centralized approach, in order to provide quality diversified services using its well trained and committed doctors and scientist from all cultural backgrounds. By embracing this policy, it has incorporated expertise from safety and innovation, supply chain, marketing and communicating, facilities management, general counsel and information systems, operations integration, finance and treasury to access at the vice presidential level of the organizational rung. The leadership is then able to use the quality information generated from these highly paid and motivated personnel, to make informed and sustainable decision at all levels of the organization.

In a centralized setting, bureaucratic red tapes was always inhibiting the rate at which these kinds of information were being processed, and as a result the quality of health services was constantly below expectations, despite the excellent corporate image of the hospital. The decentralized organizational design is also accentuated by a Board of Trustee, that relates directly to the leadership, especially in terms of sourcing financial needs for pursuing mutually agreed research, and other purposes that will lead to continuous growth and development.

TALL VS FLAT STRUCTURE

In order to facilitate its objectives, the company has chosen to work with a tall organizational structure, rather than a flat one, which was characteristic of the previous centralized approach. The organizational communication lines for a tall structure, facilitated greater flow of information, decision, conversation, and frequent reorganization, despite the occasional conflicts which were more beneficial that destructive in nature.

SPAN OF CONTROL

Span of control, according to Encyclopedia of Business, refers to the number of subordinates a supervisor can effectively manage, has been effectively applied at John Hopkins Hospital, by differentiating each functional area, and using job specifications and evaluations, to ensure staffing needs are exactly what are required to deliver the quality health services that’s critical to maintaining its world wide reputation.

The company on a daily basis will have comprehensive coverage and proper supervision, for all tasks to be performed, and will experience minimal interruptions to its work flow, especially in the life saving emergency and surgical divisions. These objectives are made possible by a high quality Hospital Director, who according to Snook, is required to demonstrate excellent technical, human relational, and conceptual skills, when working with department, divisional, and vice presidential colleagues, even down to the last line of authority in the organizational chain, to ensure high quality services are delivered (Snook75).